This blog is for the people of Colwyn Bay,including the surrounding areas and Communities, a chance to air their views, thought and ideas. A place to shout, scream, implore or simply ask a question on any and all topical issues that effect us.
You are invited to raise subjects of interest, show your concern, voice your disgust or just ask questions of me.

Saturday, 23 January 2010

I am probably the last of the local Bloggers to report on the Public Meeting regarding the Pier, unfortunately work kept me away from the keyboard until now; however, my report comes from a totally different perspective than the others considering I couldn’t get in!I arrived quite early, accompanied by Steve Hunt, I was quite surprised to see the place already busy, by the time I’d gone through a few pleasantries with people and acquaintances people were crowding in and I had to direct them to sit where they could.By the time we reached the 150 mark I was asked to inform the people outside that we were full, struggling against those trying to get in I made it to the Town Hall steps and was greeted by approx 250-300 people queuing to still get in!We managed to squeeze in a few more but in the end I had to turn away approx 200 people, calls for a photographer were answered and the press came outside to take pictures of those unlucky enough not to have gotten in, I heard demands for another meeting in a bigger venue, calls for Councillors to resign and I was even called “Scum” when asked if I was a Councillor! (A lady with the gentleman quickly pointed out and said “No! He’s one of the good ones” to which the gentleman apologised and followed it with”But they are Scum”)By the time I’d turned people away you could not move inside the Town Hall and trying to get back into the chamber was a complete waste of time. Instead I fielded questions and complaints from those left in the hallways.Feedback was fantastic, everyone has their concerns and this was more than evident in some of the questions poised. It wasn’t a Chris Hughes witch-hunt and, hats-off, he did attend as did quite a few other County Councillors. I was pleased to see “Oscar” in the crowd along with other local Bloggers.I had a very informative chat with Councillor Stuart Anderson regarding our mutual interest in an off-shore lagoon but I won’t bore you with the details.Suffice is to say it was an excellent result, it all hinges now on whether CCBC listen to what the people had to say. It is not too difficult for them to bite the bullet and sit down and talk....... is it?

Friday, 22 January 2010

Hi John, could I ask you to please publish the following on your blog - as I know many people from the bay read it who do are probably not on the pier mailing list:

Please pass on my thanks to everyone who made the effort to attend the meeting, particularly those who couldn't get in. I thougth a lot would turn out, but even I was astonished when I went outside to see people had filled the road.

I'm sorry I didn't get to talk to more of you personally, especially of course those who had travelled some distance.

I did have a lovely chat with the lady who had come all the way from Huddersfield! - who was delighted to have met up with a childhood friend from the bay at the meeting who she hadn't seen for many years!

It has at time felt like a bit of a lonely battle over the past few years, but now I am re-invigorated due to the overwhelming support of people as passionate about the pier as I have always been.

I hope this massive momentum will now be put to good use, and pressure piled on CCBC to TALK TO ME (or even my lawyers!) so we can resolve the legal issues and get back on with the job of trying to do something with the Pier.

Please everyone do your bit to lobby your Councillor, and even better still the Local Government Ombudsman for Wales whose details are at www.ombudsman-wales.org.uk

If anyone would like to keep updated directly, please join the mailing list on the pier website at www.victoriapier.com

Lastly, it would be very remiss of me not to thank David Jones MP for all the time he has spent on this issue over the past couple of years, and to the Newspapers, Radio and TV for doing their best to keep the public informed under such tight reporting restrictions.

Keep it up - CCBC cannot possibly ignore the people who pay their wages any longer.

Thursday, 21 January 2010

It appears that my announcement in regards to the BNP calling a by-election has caused a few feathers to be ruffled. Word has it that any Labour candidate put forward will be viewed has having links to Labours Chris Hughes and will therefore be viewed with suspicion. The prospective Conservative candidate has now decided not to stand and has pulled out. Plaid, as yet, hasn’t got a candidate and the BNP are already busy canvassing.Labour have a tough decision to make, dump Chris Hughes and retain credibility or keep him on and risk losing to the BNP, their third option is; not to stand a candidate in a Labour stronghold, this would be viewed as capitulating to the BNP and bring them in for extremely strong criticism from all parties, including their own. I, almost, feel sorry for them, not really, they made a rod for their own backs by allowing Chris Hughes to continue in the way that he has so now they must pay the consequences.The Conservatives can, at least, fall back on the old story of it being Labour’s responsibility but that is old news and will no longer wash, I believe JFS will be having a strong word with Merfyn Thomas to find a new candidate and quick!Plaid; being Plaid, they will wait patiently until asked and then say “By-election, what by-election?”

It pleases me to see that there are other people who do not agree with our co-option process of new Councillors. The vacancy on Colwyn Bay Town Council will now be decided by a costly By-election and not by the normal co-option process.The election has been called by the BNP; their candidate, James Trueman, told me that he felt it was the only way that democracy stood a chance against the system of co-option now adopted by the Town Council, currently any candidate must have 51% of the vote to win as opposed to the old “First past the post” system, which I wanted to keep but was out-voted.As James said; “The system you have now favours those with friends or political allies already on the Council, people like me wouldn’t stand a chance unless we go to the trouble of calling a by-election”I agree with him, our current voting process is flawed and because of that we now have to go to the very expensive process of a By-election. It is not the BNP or James Trueman that is to blame for this expense but the short sightedness of Councillors, by voting for this undemocratic process we opened the gates for complaints, we called the tune; we must now pay the piper.The BNP’s actions will now cause a flurry of activity from the other major parties who will try to keep the BNP out, thus causing them headaches that could otherwise have been avoided had they not tried to be clever in changing our co-option process.Me; I’m going to sit back and watch the likes of our Labour Councillors run around like headless chickens trying to find a candidate whilst decrying the BNP as a Racist, Fascist Party who have no place in our politics, then, at the end of it all, I’m going to vote for James who I know is a honest and decent person.Stuff ‘em!

Printed below is a copy of a letter sent to me by Steve Hunt.I’m not sure where he gets his information from, neither, apparently, are CCBC but if concerned Councillors are spilling the beans on the “QT” it is a sure sign that all is not well in the Fun Factory known as Bodlondeb! I understand my name has been banded about as the culprit but how can that be?......... I was told I couldn’t attend, so how would I know, I didn’t even get the right room (I believe it was being swept for bugs!)

1) PUBLIC MEETING ABOUT VICTORIA PIER - this Friday evening2) LIARS, CHEATS, FRAUDSTERS, PERJURERS - Names to be revealed!3) Friends of the Pier, and the TRUTH about Cllr Chris Hughes4) The Way Forward...5) ITV Wales Thursday...

Just a reminder about the meeting, I hope as many of you as possible will come along and show your support - please spread the word! It is not every day an MP calls a meeting like this, and it has caused ructions at the Corrupt Conwy County Borough Council! (CCBC)

CCBC has BANNED any of its members attending in an official capacity, and if any of them want to turn up as members of the public, they have been TOLD they must not answer any questions - nice to see democracy in action isn't it?

This morning, CCBC held a special, secret, emergency meeting to discuss me and the Pier. After I threatened to gate-crash the meeting, the room it was held in at CCBC headquarters was changed at the last minute! - Bless 'em.

Anyway, the main topic of conversation from County Councillors Brian Cossey, Abdul Khan (who is also Mayor of Colwyn Bay) and Chris Hughes (who is supposedly Chairman of "Friends of the Pier") was how news of this top secret meeting had leaked out!... they got their knickers in rather a twist over this, and have now demanded an enquiry into the "leak" - remember dear taxpayer, all this nonsense is where YOUR council tax money is going...

Interestingly, CCBC claimed to know nothing about the various offers I'd made over time to find a resolution to the problems surrounding the pier. It was pointed out that I had made an offer, in writing, to the LEADER of CCBC for him to send a delegation of himself and the appropriate officers to the Pier to see what work had been done, what was needed, and how myself and CCBC might work together for the good of the Pier. A copy of an internal memo in which the Council leader's response to my offer was stated as being "not worthy of any response" was also made available to the assembled Councillors... Council lies shown up yet again - I HAVE always been open to any discussion, however, certain Councillors like Chris Hughes have done their best to paint a very different picture of me over the past 6 years.

Interestingly, the discussion after this revelation was not "Oh, so Mr Hunt is more than willing to chat about the pier then, let's set up a meeting..." NO, instead yet more questions were asked on how on earth the person who revealed my offer, and a copy of the Councils internal memo, had come into posession of these documents... You see, the Council do not give a damn about the pier, and never have done... all they care about is their own filthy dirty secrets, and keeping them secret!

I can assure you of this: If they are worried about that one memo, they are going to have an awful lot more sleepless nights in the coming weeks...

LIARS, CHEATS, FRAUDSTERS, PERJURERS - Names to be revealed!

On Friday night, I shall be publicly naming and shaming a number of Council Officers / Councillors all involved in the utter scandal surrounding the completely illegal bankrupting of myself. The offences committed by these scumbags include FRAUD, PERJURY and PERVERTING THE COURSE OF JUSTICE. I have full details of how someone at CCBC CHANGED COMPUTER RECORDS TO CONCEAL MONEY, and how in actual fact CCBC owe ME money! Details of how CCBC knowingly LIED to the Courts all the way through legal proceedings against me, even instructing their lawyers to make FALSE written statements to the Judge!

Naturally, CCBC will be free, indeed challenged, to sue me for Slander / Libel if they want to allege what I say isn't true... after all, they seem to just love taking me to Court... BUT as I am only quoting from their OWN documents, internal memos, emails and computer records, I think they might just have a little bit of a problem when they get into a courtroom, don't you?

Friends of the Pier, and the TRUTH about Cllr Chris Hughes

I will also be asking all those interested to consider the resurrection of the "Friends of the Pier" charitable group, whose first mission will be to get rid of Cllr Chris Hughes, who alleges he still has authority as Chairman of this group.

Let me make a few facts very clear about Cllr Hughes:

He has REFUSED to call a meeting of the Friends of the Pier in over 3 years.He has REFUSED to resign as Chairman.He REFUSES to sign any cheques, thereby rendering the funds held in the Friends bank account worthless.The other member called a meeting when he wouldn't, and voted him out as Chairman... He turned up at the meeting, declared it unconstitutional as he had not called it in his capacity as Chairman, and REFUSED yet again to resign. At that meeting (nearly a year ago now) he stated he would call a "proper AGM" where his chairmanship could be discussed, but surprise, surprise, he REFUSES to call any such meeting, knowing he will get voted out!He REFUSES to respond to letters from the Secretary of the Friends sent to his house by recorded delivery.He REFUSES to respond to letters sent to his official Councillor address at CCBC's Headquarters by recorded delivery.AND YET... even at this mornings meeting, he was still bleating on about how much good HE has done for the Pier! - how he has the nerve is quite beyond my, or anyone else's, comprehension.

I can't wait to see if he has the nerve to turn up at the meeting on Friday! - there are a lot of very, very passionate people just waiting to ask him questions...

The Way Forward...

The purpose of Fridays meeting is officially to gauge the level of public support for regenerating the Pier, and to discuss what ideas people have for the kinds of things they would like to see on it.

As anyone who regularly visits the prom will know, the Pier is suffering badly from the 18 months of wilful neglect by the people who are currently, technically, the legal owners IE the Insolvency Practitioners. They have been warned numerous times by myself and my Lawyers that the pier is now dangerous in several places, but they do nothing about it. Is this all part of some cunning plan designed to allow the Pier to fall into such a bad way that demolition is considered?

In the recent big press articles in all the local papers, much prominence has been given to the idea of "demolition" - as if someone is trying to direct public opinion in that direction - and although I have been interviewed by every newspaper, there is hardly a line of quotation from me about anything - quite simply the Editors are under "pressure", shall we say, NOT to publish anything bad against CCBC in relation to the Pier.

Now, what the papers keep failing to mention is that the Pier CANNOT be demolished - it is a Grade II Listed Building!! - We don't go around demolishing old Castles just because they have holes in the walls do we?!

There have been a few good suggestions floating about of ways to help fund restoration of the Pier, which is what SHOULD be being discussed. These include building a hotel on it, a casino, cinema, bowling alleys etc. CCBC have had discussions about the availability of funding from the Welsh Assembly, but chose to keep all that secret from me and the people of Colwyn Bay.

It has been suggested that nPower should invest money into the Pier as "compensation" for ruining the coastline with all their electricity generating windmills, and then they could have some kind of information centre on the pier about the windmills. nPower have been approached directly about this, and are open to discussing the idea further... The thing is, if CCBC had a single brain-cell between them, they could have made investing in the pier a condition of planning permission for building the windmills in the first place! - this kind of arrangement is commonly used when, for example, Asda build a new primary school classroom in exchange for being allowed to build a supermarket etc. It is commonly known as a "Section 106 Planning Agreement".

ITV Wales Thursday...

I'm being interviewed Thursday morning, so keep your eye open on the ITV News bulletins throughout the day / evening... What I will say about the Corrupt Council, and what ITV will dare to actually broadcast remains to be seen!

Anyway... I could rabbit on for hours, but won't bore you any further.

Please do you best to show your support in person on Friday night - and tell as many people as you can - we want to pack out the Town Hall to standing room only!

If you do blogging or twittering or facebooking or any of those kinda things, let people know!

Friday, 15 January 2010

A week from today and we have the Public Meeting in regards to the Pier, David Jones, who is chairing the meeting, would like the people thinking of attending to let his office know, it’s a local number..... 01492 535845.CCBC, the people most likely to benefit from this meeting have not yet, officially, declared whether they will attend or not, unofficially you can bet your bottom dollar it’s the later, whenever have CCBC been interested in what the people of Colwyn Bay have had to say?They are, however, holding their own, by invitation only, meeting on Wednesday 22nd January at 8.30am in the Medium meeting room at Bodlondeb. The meeting is for Colwyn Bay County Councillors and Councillors involved in the Seafront Regeneration, no idea what the agenda is because the meeting does not appear on their calendar but, by law, should be minuted..... stop laughing at the back. I tried to get an invite, being a local Councillor, but was firmly put in my place and told “the meeting is for COUNTY COUNCILLORS only” which, translated means; “We don’t want obnoxious little Town Councillors here”.This will be CCBC’s chance to hear what the people want to see happen, the chance to see how much it is affecting local people and the biggest opportunity yet to show the people of Colwyn Bay that they really do care what happens to us and our town. If, as I suspect, they do not turn up then this will be further proof, if it were needed, of the utter contempt that the Council and it’s Councillors show to the people of Colwyn Bay.

Tuesday, 12 January 2010

In light of what’s been happening and in answer to some questions that have been asked of me I intend to put the record straight.I have no political aspirations whatsoever, I am not standing in the next General Election; I do not see myself barnstorming into Westminster and putting the world’s wrongs to right or indulging in shoving my snout into the overflowing trough of expenses. I have no thoughts about standing for the Welsh Assembly, yet more parasites feeding off the backs of the general public and doing bugger all for it. I will, however, stand at the next County Elections.I have been asked by members of the public to stand in the Glyn Ward, I was going to stand elsewhere but, after hearing their concerns, and seeing the performance of some Councillors I have decided that I will stand here in the Glyn Ward if only to see that other Councillors do not get re-elected, if I can take enough votes off one certain Councillor to ensure he isn’t re-elected then I will consider that “job-done” regardless of who else gets elected.When I got into this lark it wasn’t for fame, glory or money, I, naively, thought I could put right some of the wrongs that, as a tax-payer, I could see happening. I wasn’t prepared for the bureaucracy, politics and bullshit that go with it. Whatever happened to honesty, decency and openness? We, as Councillors, should not be told don’t tell the people this or that; you voted us in there you have a fundamental right to know what we are doing on your behalf, how we are spending your money is, and should be, important to all of us.If I see something is wrong I say it’s wrong and if I upset other Councillors by doing that then tough shit, I make no apologies for it, I would much rather incur the wrath of some of these overstuffed oafs than sit back and do nothing. That is another problem, Councillors who just “go with the flow” because it’s so much easier than arguing, if you don’t want to argue about what is right then get the hell out of there and make room for someone who is prepared to stand up for what’s right, it’s as simple as that.I carry the baggage of my old political affiliations with the BNP, so what? Does that make me blind to what is going on, or to the injustice perpetrated by the Council... does it buggery it just makes me more determined to prove that you don’t have to be a snob or a plank to be a Councillor.

Tuesday, 5 January 2010

I’ve been away from the blog for a few days. Not long ago I helped someone locally fill-in some forms and housing applications, spoke to some people on their behalf and they were successful with their applications, they were very grateful and thanked me for my assistance. So happy were they that they told their friend who had had his DLA (Disability Living Allowance) stopped. He was receiving it for over 12 months when it suddenly stopped and he was put on a Job Seekers Allowance, the person involved is so severely disabled and would be unable to walk never mind “Jobseek”. It transpires that they sent him a letter that was so full of official terminology he couldn’t understand its contents and so discarded it; the wrong thing to do I know; but they didn’t. After speaking to the people at the DLA and filling in the relevant paperwork they are now reinstating it so all’s well there. Another person has been having problems with his housing, another was a Crisis loan and another was an application for a grant.Most of the people I helped for one reason or another had originally been turned-down or refused their application because they didn’t understand the system and, I have to admit, neither did I. It wasn’t without speaking to people and asking them to explain the question that I was fully able to understand. Not everybody will do this, they maybe to embarrassed or they may not know you can do it. It showed to me, and gave me a better understanding of, our benefit system, it’s not without its flaws and genuine people do slip through the cracks. There are also those who I would call “Professional Benefit Claimants” they DO know the system and they know how to milk it and they are making it harder for those who do have genuine problems.My advice to anybody making a claim is DO NOT ignore letters that are sent to you and if you don’t understand phone up and ask them to explain, I found them very helpful and they even told me of other things these people were entitled to.

Friday, 1 January 2010

Anonymous said...Well, here we are, 2010, the end of what must be the most disastrous decade to have hit our country in half a century. Maybe worse than that, in terms of the effect which the first decade of the 21st Century has had upon the native population of these Islands, the last ten years may have caused more lasting damage than any our people have ever lived through.

In the first decade of this century we came closer to being replaced within out homeland than we ever have before.

What has been done to us we allowed to be done. In the past, our people stood together and faced down war, plague and hardship. This time we neither stood together nor faced up the the threat before us, indeed, most of our people surrendered and laid down their children's future, their children's heritage, for temporary comfort and for fear of a word.

In the past we have always survived what our country faced, yet because this time we surrendered, for the first time in a thousand years, it is by no means certain that we will survive what has overtaken us in the last ten years.

We are a wounded people, we are an occupied people and most dangerously we are a disunited people.

Rejoin the ranks John.31 December 2009 23:27

Anon 23.27,As I creep into the 2nd year of writing this blog you have been the constant burden I have had to carry; I have lost count of the number of your comments I have had to reject, you have cajoled me, incited me and, at times, inspired me. Your dogged determination is, begrudgingly, inspirational, you have hung-on in there and brought the fight to my very doorstep, your persistence is nothing but creditable. You are, without doubt, a sincere Nationalist with a pride and a passion for your Country, it is you, and the very people like you, who stand tall and shout for what you believe in, you face the taunts, the insults and the slurs but yet you come back for more, you, and those others like you, are what enthused me into joining the BNP, the people I met and the fervour they showed drove me to a new determination but there is a darker side to the BNP and by exposing it I burnt my bridges. I have no regrets of being in the BNP, the same way I have no regrets about the way I have lived the rest of my life but it is a period of that life that is now over, like the parting of old friends, it was sad but inevitable. I wish you well in your struggles old friend and I hope you have many victories but, alas, I will not be there to celebrate them with you, that is something that you and the other Nationalists must do together. God’s speed.